​The most important race of the week for the club was the National Half marathon championships, held in conjunction with the Rock and Roll series on Sunday. Over 6,500 competitors entered the race, including at least 10 Crusaders and we had some outstanding results among them. On a challenging course, that starts on the North Wall quay wending its way along the Liffey, up and around Christchurch as something of a devious consideration in order to hit all the landmarks and then through Kilmainham, eventually ending up at the finish in the Phoenix Park at its highest point, the race was won by the newly-crowned national 10,000m champion, Kevin Dooney, in 66 minutes, about 45 seconds ahead of Sergiu Ciobanu. Our first Crusader home was Brian O’Kelly who ran a stormer to finish in 19th place (1:13:40), followed by another great run from Frank Halligan (31st in 1:15:35) and Rob Cross (46th in 1:17:02 and 5th in his age category). The 3 men were able to take 5th place in the team competition. Colm Kernan was next in 206th place with a super time of 1:26:57 and he was followed by Karl Walsh (262nd in 1:28:50) and then by Gian Piero Allerta with a PB time of 1:34:10 (444th), the 3 men recording 18th place in the team competition. Dominick Branigan also took part in the race, treating it as a training run (placing 498th in 1:35:12). David Killion came next in 1:35:54 (534th), followed by Niall Dunne (929th in 1:41:56), Olwyn Dunne (1,251st overall, 222nd female and 4th in her age category) who tagged a long run onto her race, and by Joe O’Reilly (2,336th in 1:56:54). There was also a 10k event as usual and we had 2 runners in this race with its field of more 2,000 runners. Matt Cranley recorded a PB to place 35th in 41:06, whilst Emma O'Mahony came home in 49:38, 202nd overall and 42nd female finisher.

On Saturday several of us took part in another classic “Cru on tour” event, the 8k Streets of Galway. The pilgimage to the land of the tribesmen has become something of a tradition now and we generally show up in force, this year’s contingent being nearly 30 runners in a field of more than 2,500 finishers. Moreover, we are warmly welcomed for the effort by Galway City Harriers, the host organising club, always receiving great support around the course. It has to be said that the rooming arrangements in the apartment block that we have now begun to treat as our permanent headquarters for the weekend can be considered to be somewhat chaotic, but the landlord is pretty laid back and it generally all works out in the end, with everyone being accommodated. The great thing about the race is that it takes place at 7 on the Saturday evening, so that following the finish, there is almost immediate celebrating which lasts the night. This year was no exception and it was surprising several of us were able to make the long run on Sunday morning on the back of this, a tribute to Cru stamina!

One of the funny things about the race is that nearly everyone who has raced it before remembers it generally as a flat course, but this is certainly not correct. It definitely has a long finish, nearly 3k along the Salthill promenade, but there are hills throughout from within the first kilometre and in fact it can be considered as quite a challenging course. Weather conditions, however, were perfect with a little cooling breeze in our faces at times.

The race itself enjoyed a ding-dong battle between Kevin Maunsell and Freddie Sittuk, with Kevin eventually prevailing in a sprint finish (23:43 versus 23:45). Last year's winner, Siobhan O’Doherty, took the women’s race in 27:43, with Caroline Crowley in 2nd (for the 2nd time) in 29:04 and a surprise return from GCH’s Nicola Duncan who came in 3rd (29:23) after working her way through the field.

Our runners acquitted themselves well, with our women taking the first team prize. The scorers were Caroline (49th overall), Ilona McElroy (86th overall, 6th woman finisher, in 30:18) and Catherine Thornton (109th overall, 8th woman, in a PB time of 31:10). John McAuley came in 1st in the M35 category (35th in 28:12), followed by Hugh Larkin (47th in 28:57 and 2nd in the same category). Another top 50 placing went to Joe McDermott (50th in a PB of 29:05), whilst another likely PB went to John Fahy (70th and 3rd M35 in 29:51). Joe Walsh, though below par having suffered sickness earlier in the week, recovered strongly to place 97th in 30:39 and he was followed by Michael Maughan (105th in 31:03). There were also strong runs from Kevin Lynch with a likely PB performance (112th in 31:17) and by Neil Monahan (130th in 31:45) who ran alongside James Cottle (139th in 32:04 and 2nd M60) for the first 6k, but who managed to pull away well towards the finish. Likewise, there were excellent runs from Brendan Glynn (193rd in a PB time of 33:17) and by Nina Holmes (211th overall, 18th woman, in 33:28). Slightly outside her comfort zone was Leslie-Ann Doughan, more familiar with shorter distance events, but she ran well to place 217th overall in PB time of 33:37, followed by Luke Haran (222nd in 33:50), Grainne Regan (275th overall, 29th woman 2nd in her F35 category, in 33:43) and newcomer to racing, Robert Crowley (347th in 35:30). Slightly the worse for wear from attending James Murphy’s wedding the day before, Will Owens and Michael O’Conor decided to take it easy around the course and helped to pace some of our athletes, among them Louise Dobbyn in her first competitive event in a while (359th overall, 48th woman, in 36:02). Will still managed to place 4th in his age category. The contingent was completed by Maria Kennedy (443rd overall, 63rd woman, in 36:47), Ciara Lehane (444th overall, 64th woman and 3rd F35), Mike Fong (680th in 39:20 and 5th M35), Hazel Greene, who has made Galway her home, (837th overall, 173rd woman, in 40:52), Siobhan Russell (930th overall, 208th woman, in a PB time of 41:40 and 4th in her F35 age category) and by Jean Devlin (1,036th overall, 251st woman and 5th F35).

We had one runner in the East Cork Harbour Half marathon on Saturday morning. Newcomer Gerald Hoare placed 81st in a field of more than 300 runners in a time of 1:48:34.

Leo Lundy’s weekend challenges started on Saturday with the Darnley Trail marathon, a rural hilly trail in Kent, followed on Sunday by the Salisbury 54321 50k, starting and finishing at Salisbury Cathedral. He claims to be nearing the end of his long journey!

​There was also a 2 mile race in Raheny last week, organised by Raheny Shamrocks. Fiona Shine placed 10th overall and 2nd woman home in 12:15, whilst John Fitzsimons came home in 51st place with a time of 17:29 and Lorraine Fitzsimons was 57th in 19:14.

Many congratulations should go to Jason Kehoe for taking the national mountain running title for at least a second time on Sunday. In the last race of 5 races (best 3 races to score) Jason had to beat Brian Furey of Rathfarnham in order to take the title. The race took place on a 13km course in Tipperary to the top of Galtymore and back crossing the peaks of Cush and Galtybeg (involving a total ascent of more than 1300m). Jason was behind at times, but came home to beat Brian in a sprint finish and won by the narrowest of margins (1 second: 1:21:40 to 1:21:41) to bring the title to Irishtown. It was a well-deserved victory, Jason having won three of the five races.

​Last week 3 of or members took part in the IMRA-organised Glen of the Downs 8k, involving a climb of nearly 300m on otherwise easy terrain. The race was won by Derek Crammond in 30:16. Our first runner home was Brian Leonard (12th in 33:40) and he was followed by Brian McGuckin (22nd in 34:49) and Gavan Doherty (28th in 35:50). The field measured 124 runners.

There was a decent turnout of Crusaders in this weekend’s parkruns. Ciaran Diviney took advantage of a trip to the World Championships in London to run in Hackney Marshes, placing 2nd in a field of 238 in a time of 16:21. Kris Ryan, still in Australia, ran in Coomera again. This time Kris placed 3rd woman (31st overall) in 23:43 among a field of more than 100. Fiona Shine and Orlaith de Burca, with others whose times were not recorded, also ran in the UK before going to see the athletics, in Panshanger, placing 28th and 115th respectively (4th and 29th female finishers) in respective times of 21:43 and 28:02. The field measured 244.

On Wednesday evening a fair number from the club headed over to Tallaght to participate in the 8th Graded meet of the season there. Alix Hughes took part in the women’s 100m (A, B&C) and placed 2nd in a time of 13.35, whilst in the same mixed grades for the 400m, Mary Horgan took first place in 60.27, followed by Lesley-Ann Doughan in 4th in a PB time of 64.59. Again, with combined A,B and C grades, Darina Scully and Kate Murray joined a dozen other athletes in the 3,000m, with Darina finishing in 11th in 11:56.65 and Kate in 13th in 12:20.57. A new 1 mile event was added to the programme and this attracted Fiona and Lisa Shine who ran in the combined grades event. Fiona took 3rd place in 5:32.72 and Lisa came home in 5th in 5:56.13. The men were well-represented too. In the first of 3 events in which he participated on the night, Frank Halligan ran in the 400m C race 2, placing 6th in 62.78, whilst Kieron Sexton placed 4th in the A race 2 in 52.49. Then, in the men’s 3000m combined B&C grades Frank placed 4th in 9:56.24, followed by Joe McDermott with a PB to place 6th in 10:10.23 and Brendan Glynn who also recorded a PB, coming home in 15th place in a time of 11:26.63. In the men’s A event for the same distance Brian O’Kelly ran 9:05.26 to place 4th, with Michael Kiely taking 11th spot in a time of 9:16.36. Finally, in the men’s mile event (B&C grades) Brian Carroll took first place in 5:03.17, followed home by Frank in 4th (5:10.65), Niall McGeorge, 7th (5:24.73) and Paul Kelly, 12th (7:42.80).

Over the weekend, Patrick Gilceava competed for Ireland in the Celtic Games International held at Morton Stadium, placing 3rd in the U18 long jump and then participating in the 2nd placed 4x100m relay team. Many congratulations to him.

On Bank Holiday Monday morning at least a dozen Crusaders took on the DLR Bay 10k. The morning was bathed in sunshine, but it was quite windy, with the wind providing more refreshment probably than resistance on what is considered quite a challenging course with several climbs in the first half after a start in Sandycove, a long steep downhill section in the second half and an uphill finish along the seafront to the roundabout at Dun Laoghaire station. The race attracted nearly 1,250 runners and was won by John Coghlan (30:44) who gradually wore out Freddie Sittuk (31:16) in his 3rd race in as many days. In a race plagued by several attempts by car drivers to breach the barriers (one nearly came onto the course in front of John Coghlan just as he was turning onto the seafront at Sandycove and the driver was roundly verbally savaged by the lead Garda motorcyclist) Rob Cross was our first man home in a super 4th place behind another Limerick athlete Colm Turner, having enjoyed a good battle with Colm and Brian O’Kelly (33:43) who took 5th spot, well ahead of the 6th-place finisher (Raheny’s Brian Leahy). Both Rob and Brian are preparing for the Berlin marathon in September. Dominick Branigan, still testing out his ankle after being knocked off his bike a couple of weeks back and preparing for the Dublin marathon, enjoyed an excellent run (35th in 39:07) and he was followed by Dave Carter (71st in 41:26), working his way back to fitness (as evidenced a couple of days earlier in his improving parkrun form). Gian Piero Allerta, also a runner taking care after injury, took 97th spot in 43:14, and he was followed home by Russell Murphy (336th in 49:05). Olwyn Dunne was next on the back of a really long Sunday run (349th overall, 51st female, in 49:25), followed by Gavan Doherty (429th in 50:25), another in marathon training and having completed a decent long run on Sunday. Similarly, Stephen Mulligan, another long distance runner, was next (436th in 52:03), followed by Neil Brown (467th in 52:20), Siobhan Russell, another marathoner, (599th overall, 146th female, in a PB time of 55:14), John Fitzsimons (Jr) (797th in 58:52) and Jean Devlin, also in training for the marathon (823rd overall, 242nd female, in 59:39). The women’s race was particularly interesting, with the first 3 finishers (Michelle Cox, Aoife O’Leary and Zoe Quinn) separated by only 9 seconds, the winning time being 39:07.

On the long distance front, (after participating again in the Coomera parkrun, running 24:08 and placing 32nd overall, 5th female, in the 100-strong event) Kris Ryan ran in the Brisbane marathon, coming home in 3:50, her fastest run for that particular event, whilst Leo Lundy ran in two races, the second of which, on the Monday, marked his 200th marathon. His 199th was in the EOI marathon held in Stapleton, Co. Kildare, which Leo described as slow and painful, followed by the 200th in the Celtic Warrior marathon in Co. Meath. Many congratulations to Leo on the achievement.

Visually-impaired triathlete Donnacha McCarthy and his partner, Dave Tilly, excelled themselves over the weekend and, after an extremely tough swim and tandem bike ride they won the National Paratriathlon Championships. It was extremely well-deserved after their dedicated training together.

In truly Irish weather conditions Federico Corradini, our Cru exile in Italy, took on the open standard of the World Mountain Running Championships in Premana in Northern Italy (the Giiri di Mont) over the weekend. On the 32km course, with a climb of more than 2.5km, Federico recorded a laudable time of 5:03. There was only one mountain race In Ireland during the week on which to report. On Wednesday evening Brian McGuckin travelled down to run Devil’s Glen near Ashford in Co. Wicklow to take part in a race of 8.5km on relatively easy terrain with a climb of under 300m. Brian placed 21st out of 129 runners in an event which was won by Liffey Valley’s Mike McCarthy (32:53).

In the parkruns on Saturday, we had singleton runners in 7 of the 8 events in which our clubmates participated. The odd one out was St. Anne’s which saw John Fitzsimons, only 3 weeks before his 80th birthday, record a time of 27:00, placing 181st in the field of nearly 400 runners. John was followed by his daughter Lorraine (289th overall, 101st female, in 31:40) and Maria Pertl, another runner only weeks from a major milestone (!) (323rd overall, 118th female, in 34:23). So, elsewhere, Kate Murray placed 62nd (4th female) in 22:29 in the nearly 360-strong field in Marlay Park. Brendan Kieran continues to push his times lower in Hartstown. Brendan joined 73 other runners, to place 18th in 23:35. Dominick Branigan showed that he is in better shape than he thought, recording 18:38 to place first finisher in Sligo ahead of a field of 60 runners. Dave Carter, likewise, continues to push his times down, as he placed 6th in Cabinteely (20:35) in a field of 93 runners. Kevin Flynn jogged round Castlehaven, placing 34th out of nearly 60 runners in 32:02, whilst Denis Murphy took on Dungloe, finishing in 3rd place out of 50 in 21:08. Finally, newcomer Brian Scanlan, also ran well to place 2nd out of 80 runners in River Valley. Brian’s time was 19:21.

There was a serious show of strength from the club over the weekend in the second leg of the National league Track and Field semi-final. Coming into the leg at the Mary Peters track in Belfast in 5th place after the first round and needing to be in the top 8 from the aggregate of the two pools, it looks as though the men’s team has qualified for the final on 20 August in style. In the 17 events, we had no fewer than 9 first place and 3 second place finishes, coming home with 128 points to win the session, ahead of Clonliffe (120), Raheny (105) and Donore (97).

Andrew Mellon took on the 100m and 200m, placing respectively 4th and 1st. Then Brian Murphy ran the 400m for the club, winning that event. Kevin Woods came home in 2nd in the 800m, whilst Karl Fahy, running his first 5K on the track in a while, placed 6th. Matt Behan duly took care of the competition in the 110mH, winning that well and Jason Harvey, likewise, did the same in the 400mH. Team captain, and veteran 3000m steeplechaser (!), Gary Park, put in a great effort to take 5th place in that event, as did James Kelly, who took 2nd place in the shot put. Colin Quirke delayed his return to the US, to win the discus and Ciaran Donnelly finished 2nd in the hammer. Oisin Taylor won the triple jump. Bob Lyne was another who nobly took on two events, placing 2nd in the 56lbs throw and 3rd in the walk, whilst Adam McMullen took on 3 events: placing 5th in the javelin with a PB, 1st in the long jump, then joining Nick Ennis, Matt and Andrew in the 4x100m relay where the team placed 1st. Our men’s relay teams are riding high at the moment and this was demonstrated even more clearly with a win for Nick, Kevin, Jason and Brian in the 4x400m.

Off the track, we had some excellent road racing results over the past few days. On Thursday, Ger Forde took part in the Dublin Airport Central 5k along with 180 other runners. Ger placed 2nd in 17:57, behind race winner Freddie Sittuk (17:33). On the same day, we had 3 runners in the second annual running of the Carton House 6k trail race. In a field of more than 530 runners, Michael Maughan placed 32nd in a great time of 23:51, followed by Kate Murray (117th overall, 16th female and 4th in her age category, in 27:55) and Emma O’Mahony (154th overall, 27th female, in 29:14).

Then, on Sunday, we had at least 10 Crusaders participate in the more than 120-strong BHAA Dublin Fire Brigade 5k which was held near the Brigade’s training centre on the Malahide Road. On a course that was described as undulating with 500m of climb towards the end and in blustery conditions, Ilona McElroy distinguished herself with a win in the women’s race (11th overall in 18:35), nearly a minute ahead of the woman in 2nd place. The leader of our pack was, however, Karl Walsh, who placed 6th in 17:50, followed by a resurgent John Thuillier (8th in 18:02), and, after Ilona, Barry McGuire (15th in 18:50). Next came Robbie Moore (38th in 20:49), followed by Neil Brown (57th in 22:26), Emer Kenny, running really well in 68th place overall, 10th woman, (22:54), Olwyn Dunne (95th overall, 22nd woman, 4th in her age category) in 24:34 and, finally, by Paul Kelly (106th in 26:02).

There was quite a bit of action in the mountains last week. On Wednesday a trail race over 7.5k took place on Djouce. 134 runners headed for the hills, which involved a relatively easy 118m climb. We had 3 clubmates in the event. With the winner, Barry Murray, coming home in a time of 28:40, Colm Kernan was our first Crusader finisher, placing 20th in 31:45. Colm was followed by Brian McGuckin (24th in 32:04) and Gavan Doherty (43rd in 34:04). Gavan went on to join Jason Kehoe on Saturday afternoon in the 4th race of the 5 race series of the Irish Mountain Championships. This time the race was held in Log Na Coile, Co. Wicklow, with the moderate climb of 500m taking runners up Lugnaquillia Mountain. In the best 3 of 5 races to count and with 2 wins already under his belt, Jason Kehoe needed to beat Brian Furey to avoid having to take the series to a decider as Jason was sitting on 2 points, equal with Brian (who until Saturday had only run in one race and placed 2nd to Jason). In the event, Brian won the race on Saturday (in 54:30), with Jason taking 3rd place (55:25) behind Michael McCarthy (55:07) in 2nd place. So, as the smoke clears, it essentially means that Jason has to finish ahead of Brian in the last race in Galtymore on 13 August to take the national title again. The event will be a challenging one, involving a climb over 12km of 1.34km. In a field of 65 runners on Saturday, Gavan took 31st place in a time of 1:14:12.

Leo Lundy reports that he took part in a 28.5 mile "Invader ultra" in Dorset over the weekend. The Roman-themed event took place in lashing rain on muddy hills which soon became a quagmire. A truly difficult challenge and Leo finished in 7:28:48, in 262nd place out of nearly 300 runners.

As usual, there were a number of Crusaders taking part in parkruns on Saturday morning. Kris Ryan ran one in Coomera in Queensland, Australia. In a field of 121, Kris ran a sedate (for her) 32:23 to place 89th overall (25th female finisher). In Marlay Park, Kevin Lynch ran 19:06 to place 12th in a field of nearly 400 participants. 5 of our club mates ran in St. Anne’s, Raheny, among nearly 380 runners. Matt Cranley finished in 21st place (19:41), followed by Colm Kernan (55th in 21:35), Denis Murphy (149th in 24:55), Aoife Quinn (237th overall, 65th woman, in 28:21) and Ciara McElligott (318th overall, 116th woman, in 31:25). We had a few run in Bere Island, off Co. Cork for the first time. Fiona Shine was first female finisher in a field of 112 runners, placing 4th overall, in a time of 21:27. Orlaith de Burca was next in 28:13 (30th overall, 12th woman), followed by Fiona’s daughter, Mia (62nd overall, 22nd female finisher, in 40:57). Paul Flynn came home in 3rd place in Kilkenny. Paul’s time was 18:39 and there were nearly 180 runners in the event. In Hartstown, Brendan Kieran improved on his time last week with a 14th spot (in a field of 59) and a time of 24:18. Helena Walsh placed 11th overall, 4th woman, in a time of 21:52 among the 70-strong field in Limerick, whilst Kevin Flynn took 45th place out of 88 runners in a time of 28:03 in Porterstown. Finally, we had 5 runners in Cabinteely. Raghnall O’Donoghue led the contingent home in 6th place in a field of 134 participants. Raghnall’s time was 20:49 and he was followed by Tom Dunne (10th in 21:21), Dave Carter (11th in 21:28), Colm Foley (28th in 24:05) and Olwyn Dunne (97th overall, 24th woman, in 30:13).

Thanks to Liam Behan, Eithne from the BHAA and Action Photography for the photos.

The Summer just gets better and better and we have witnessed and participated in some super events so far!

There was a fair representation for the club among track and field and road runners over the past few days as we had numerous members compete in the national Senior track and field championships up in Santry and more than 40 turned out for the first event in the Dublin race series, the Fingal 10K, part of the traditional build up to the Dublin marathon in October.

We start with track and field and the highlight of this weekend was the two days of action at the national Senior T&F Championships. Several crusaders made it to finals, and of those that didn’t we had a fair smattering of PBs in any event. On Saturday, Lisa Shine took part in the first heat of the women’s 800m, placing 9th behind eventual national champion and World Championships-bound Ciara Mageean. Lisa ran 2:39.50. In the third of the 3 heats, we had 3 Crusaders together with Lorraine Healy who trains with us. It was probably too big an ask to expect them to make the final, but the women ran well with Lesley-Ann Doughan running strongly at the finish to take Fiona Shine who had led the small group behind the front runners for much of the race. Both recorded PBs, with Lesley-Ann registering 2:25.71 for 5th place and Fiona, 2:26.11 for 6th. Lorraine also recorded a PB in 7th (2:26.62), just ahead of Grainne Regan in 8th (2:35.34).

In the men’s 800m heats, Kieron Sexton ran a PB in the first race by hanging on to Mark English (1:54.14 to place 3rd) and qualify as a fastest loser. Kevin Woods duly won his heat with a good lead throughout (1:54.00) with Michael O’Conor back in 7th (2:01.87), demonstrating his usual strong finish to a race and just off his PB. The final the following day saw Kevin take up the lead towards the end of the race but he was overhauled in the finishing straight, coming home in 5th place (1:52.67) and Kieron took 10th spot in 1:56.70, no doubt spent after his previous day’s courageous effort.

Men’s captain Michael Kiely was on his own in the men’s 1500m heats, finishing in 12th place in 4:06.76, whilst, in the women’s race which went straight to final without any heats, Niamh Boland took 11th spot in 4:44.50, followed by Orla Kennedy in 16th with a PB of 4:53.39.

There were some spectacular performances among our sprinters. Jason Harvey was our lone participant in the men’s 400mH, but he ran well in the first round on Saturday, placing 2nd in 55.05 and then acquitted himself well against the tough opposition of Thomas Barr and Paul Byrne to take bronze in the final, with a great 51.19 finish. Then, in the men’s 110mH final (an event without heats), Matthew Behan narrowly missed out on the title with a PB run of 14.09 (his second PB in as many weeks), the winner running 13.94, Matt having been in contention from gun to tape. We managed to get 4 Crusaders into the men’s 400m final on Sunday, with some convincing runs in the heats the previous day. Nick Ennis and Brian Murphy came through as fastest losers from their respective heats, Nick having run a likely PB of 48.53 and Brian, 49.00, behind heat winner, newcomer Andrew Mellon (48.59). Ben Maze won his heat in 48.14. So, onto the final, in which we witnessed a fabulous spectacle behind national champion Brian Gregan, off to the World Championships next week. Andrew (47.44) ran an explosive last 100m to overhaul Ben (47.64) and take silver, with Ben taking home the bronze. Brian, with a tough inside lane draw for a tall runner, ran his heart out in his 16th consecutive appearance in a national 400m championship final (and twice winner of the title) to place 5th in a season’s best 48.32 and Nick took 8th spot in 49.31. Indeed, the club dominated the distance over the day as we fielded two men’s teams for the 4x400m relays, with the team of Ben Maze, Nick Ennis, Andrew Mellon and Jason Harvey taking the title and the team of Matthew Behan, Kieron Sexton, James and Kevin Woods, placing third.

Ciara Barry was our lone female sprinter, running gamely to place 4th in the second of 2 heats (1:01.66) and qualify for the final as a fastest loser. Ciara then went on to take 8th place in the final with a marginally faster time of 1:00.45.

We also had some success in the field events over the weekend. Adam McMullen successfully defended his national title in the long jump with a leap of 7.74m (having placed 2nd earlier in the week in the Cork City Games in windy conditions with a jump of 7.49). Colin Quirke, having been unable to defend his 2015 title in the 2kg discus last year, came back to win it this year with a throw of 55.12m, one of only 2 valid throws (out of 6) in the final analysis, the other also being enough to take the title. Alix Hughes contested the women’s long jump, but, unfortunately, did not qualify for the final, recording only one valid jump (4.36m) of the three to determine qualification. Finally, James Kelly took 8th spot in the 7.26kg shot put with a throw of 12.40m.

Staying with track and field, a few of our clubmates headed over the Morton stadium on a wet and windy evening last Wednesday for the 7th Dublin Athletics graded meeting. Patrick Gilceava won the long jump with a leap of 6.35m, whilst Alix Hughes took 2nd in the women’s 200m B race in a time of 27.34. In the women’s 1500m C race, Darina Scully ran 5:27.01 in finishing 5th, whilst, in the B event, Fiona Shine won easily in a time of 5:03.14. We had a runner in each of the two races in the men’s 200m B standard. Sam Bolger won race 1 in 24.90 and John Nugent placed 7th in race 2 in a time of 26.21. Finally, we had 6 runners in 4 of the 1500m graded races. In the D event, Brendan Glynn narrowly failed to improve on his PB when he placed 8th in 5:20.27, whilst, in the C event, Brian Carroll did get a PB by winning it in 4:37.90, followed by Frank Halligan (6th in 4:45.48) and John Thuillier (8th in 4:49.99) in a field of 16 runners. Alan Sheehy took on the B grade, placing 10th in 4:40.10, whilst Michael Kiely ran in the A event as a warm up for the national championships, taking 10th in 4:22.92.

In mountain running during the week, Ali Onur Uyar was our lone representative in the Dublin mountains in a 60-strong race known as the Kippure Handicap. Ali, completed the tough race in 1:31:55 to place 34th. It was held on a tough 9.27km course with a climb of 300m and in wet and windy conditions.

There were two notable road races in the Dublin area during this period. On Thursday, more than a 1,000 runners took to the streets around Kilmainham and the Liberties, among them at least 13 Crusaders. The event was the annual Liberties run and this year was clearly a 4 mile event. Orla Drumm successfully and convincingly defended her title (some 80s ahead of 2nd place), placing 10th overall in 22:34 behind overall race winner John Coghlan (18:59) who narrowly beat Freddie Sittuk (19:00) and Sean Hehir (19:05) and there were also great runs from Crusaders James Moran (6th in 22:11) and Joe Walsh (17th in 23:26). Top 50 places among the men went to TJ Bourke (30th in 24:58) and Gearoid Grogan (32nd in 24:59). Marius McNicholas (56th in 26:21), Luke Haran (65th in 26:34) and Lorcan Wogan (144th in 29:16) were our other men in the race. On the women’s side, Orla was followed by Katie McElroy (98th overall, 15th woman, in 27:52), Ruth Dwyer (104th overall and 17th woman, in 27:59), Rachel Yorke (147th overall, 29th woman, in 29:25) and Olwyn Dunne (181st overall, 39th woman, in 30:20).

The second big road race of the weekend was the Dublin Race Series Fingal 10K, which has become a permanent and popular fixture in the racing calendar after about 5 years now. It is run on a fast and largely flat course, with slight drags at 4km and then in the final kilometre. Conditions were damp before the start with some fine drizzle, but by the time the race started at 10 conditions were dry, if a little humid and clammy in temperatures in the high teens and the sun briefly shone about 20 minutes into the race. The hose shower from Swords’ fire brigade in the 9th kilometre was greatly appreciated by all!

The race attracted more than 3,000 runners, at least 40 of them Crusaders, a huge turnout for the event and noticed by the race commentator, at the start and as we finished, with some top level performances, more than half of our number finishing in the top 500 overall and as many as 14 running under 40 minutes. Several of our participants are training for the Dublin marathon and will have got some confidence from this event.

On the men’s side there were some terrific runs, with a good spread of PBs, particularly towards the front of the race. The overall event was won by John Coghlan, overpowering Freddie Sittuk for the second time in 4 days, but this time with a more comfortable gap of 7 seconds. The first male Crusader home was John Mulvihill, who had an outstanding run to place 9th in a PB time of 32:53. He was followed by Ciaran (registered as Ciara!) Diviney, who also obtained a PB in 33:19 with his 14th placing. Ciaran additionally distinguished himself with first place in the O/40 age category. There were also PBs for the next two athletes home: Frank Halligan (34th in 35:19) and Joe McDermott (54th in 36:06, a more than 50 seconds improvement over the recent Dunshaughlin 10k). Frank Hague was next (58th in 36:15), followed by Karl Walsh (64th in 36:26), Paul Flynn (93rd in 37:21), Joe Walsh (140th in 38:29), newcomer Brian Scanlan (154th in 38:55), Brian Leonard (getting back to his old form, 159th in 39:07), Diarmuid Byrne (161st in 39:09) and Gearoid Grogan (like Joe, in his second race in 4 days) (201st in 39:42). Niall O'Connell was our only real casualty of the race. He was well-placed at the half-way mark but a recurring ankle injury forced him to stop. Niall was able to finish, however, after helping a few other runners themselves to get to the line.

Our visually-impaired colleague, Donnacha McCarthy was guided expertly by Dave Tilly to a 9–minute PB improvement, coming home in 40:39 (259th place), and they were followed by a storming Dave Tuohy (287th in 40:50). Next came James Cottle, in his first race back from recent injuries to both of his Achilles (302nd in 41:24). Whilst still far from past form, James outsprinted another O/60 runner in the last 100m to claim 3rd place in that age category. Other runners in the race included Phelim Murray (326th in 41:48), Tom Dunne (338th in 41:51), Robbie Moore (481st in 43:10), Denis Murphy (496th in a PB time of 43:23) and newcomer Ian Hennessy with a PB (946th in 46:57), to complete the complement of runners in the race.

Over the weekend some of our clubmates, particularly those training for an Autumn marathon, took part in some long distance events. Newcomer Fergal Condron ran a PB in the Killarney half. In a field of nearly 1,100 runners, Fergal placed 63rd in a time of 1:29:54, his first time under 90 minutes. Then, in Donabate on Saturday, newcomer Barry McGuire and Paul O’Meara ran in a half marathon organised by the East of Ireland marathon club. They were joined by 56 other runners and Barry took 2nd place in 1:28:54, with Paul in 4th, treating the event as a training run, finishing in a time of 1:32:35.

As a recovery run from last week’s 24-hour effort, Leo Lundy took on the international Achill back-to- back marathon event around the toughest and one of the most scenic routes in the country. In extremely warm and sunny conditions, Leo came mid-pack both days in a reasonably modest field (results yet to be published).

In Queensland, Australia. Kris Ryan took part in a 24-hour event around an iconic 600m trail in the historic village of Coobulture. Kris is to be congratulated as she managed 103 miles for 1st place overall in the race.

John Fitzsimons and his daughter Lorraine ran in the Lord Mayor's 2 mile run in Raheny last Tuesday, with John finishing in 17:40 and Lorraine, 19:28.

There is news that soon there may be a park run in Sean Moore Park. Watch this space. In the meantime, Crusaders took part in 9 parkruns on Saturday morning. Colm Kernan and john Fitzsimons joined more than 320 other runners in St. Anne’s, Raheny, with Colm placing 10th in 19:13 and John still going strong just before his 80th birthday with a 28:54 finish (195th place). Sharon Woods placed 35th overall, 7th woman, in 25:56 among the 123 runners in Tymon. Fiona Bane ran in Cootehill, placing 11th overall, 4th woman, in 25:04. The field was a modest 38. Then, in Hartstown, Brendan Kieran made a rare foray into park-running, placing 22nd out of 57 in a time of 24:44, whilst Neil Brown took on the hilly Cabinteely along with nearly 140 other participants, placing 33rd in 24:36. Kevin Flynn was also a solo representative for the club in Porterstown, where he ran 27:20 to finish in 44th spot out of 70 runners. Darina Scully and Olwyn Dunne prepared for the following day’s 10K race with a trip around Bushy Park in Bushy Dublin. Of 123 runners, Darina placed 67th overall, 21st woman, in 28:25, whilst Olwyn took 69th spot overall, 23rd woman, in a time of 28:28. In the 2nd running of Fairview, 6 of our members explored this new event. Aoife Clark was first home, finishing in 14th spot overall (out of nearly 90 runners), 2nd woman, in 22:52, followed by Aoife Quinn (19th overall, 4th woman, in 24:43), Sarah Lyons (51st overall, 15th woman) in 29:30, Phelim Murray (52nd overall, same time), the game Maria Pertl (56th overall, 18th woman, in 31:28) and Diarmuid Byrne (57th in 31:29), the last 3 athletes preparing for the Fingal 10k the following day. Finally, Rob Cross took time off from a wedding down in limerick to run in the parkrun there, coming home as first finisher in a time of 16:53 in a field of 74 runners.

​What a week that was! We witnessed some fabulous track racing at the Morton Games and also at the IMC meet in La Cheile, but also there was an outstanding performance from Matthew Behan in the U23 European Championships in Bydgoszcz in Poland, denied a place in the 110mH final by 1/1000th of a second, despite a PB run. There were also standout performances on the track and on the roads this week from a lot of familiar Crusader names.

On the track the week started on Wednesday with the Morton Games, which included some IMC events among a plethora of international runners and a mile event that saw as many as 11 of the 16 runners go under 4 minutes. One of the most fascinating results of the evening was the 800m B race in which Niamh Boland took part. Niamh finished in 9th place in 2:17.25, but the race was won by Sonya O’Sullivan’s 15-year old daughter, Sophie, around 2:11. A name to watch. Michael O’Conor continues to get faster as an 800m runner, placing 6th in the men’s 800m D race in a PB time of 2:01.47, after a really strong sprint for the line. After a week of sickness, Brian Murphy tested himself out in the men’s 400m B race, placing 4th in a season’s best 48.41, behind a surging Ben Maze who ran a super-fast 2nd half of the race to take 2nd place in 47.71 and ahead of Nick Ennis who ran 49.72 to finish in 7th place. Jason Harvey was another of our top athletes at the games and he placed 5th in the 400mH in a time of 51.48.

On Thursday evening several of our members headed up to Drogheda for the 5th graded meet of the season there. In the mixed 1500 B race Brendan Glynn led our contingent home in a 12 second PB improvement, placing 11th in 5:19.22, followed by Darina Scully (11th in 5:23.27) and Lisa Shine (14th in 5:24.71). Paul Kelly ran in the mixed 1500m C event, taking 11th spot in 7:00.8. Again, in a mixed race, Liam Lyster ran 75.33 in the 400m D event, taking 4th place, with a similar result in the mixed 100m B, where Liam ran 13.7.

We come to Friday where Matthew Behan ran in the heats of the 110mH in the U23 European Championships. Only the first two of each heat qualified for the final and despite hitting at least 3 hurdles Matthew was well in contention all the way through his race. His PB time of 14.14, however, placed him in 3rd, but only 1/1000th of a second behind the Czech runner in 2nd after a photo finish.

Finally, on Saturday, in their 2nd meet of the week, and last of the season, Mike McGovern and Susan Walsh organised a track meet at Le Cheile AC’s track in Leixlip. It was a warm but really blustery day, so it was quite surprising to see PBs emerge from some of the events.

In the men’s 400m A race, an event full of international athletes, Brian Murphy ran an excellent race, not reflected in the time, probably because of the wind (and the winning time was 47:21), to place 4th in 49.33. Then in the women’s 800m B event, Fiona Shine ran a canny race, coming from right at the back after the first lap to place 7th in a PB time of 2:26.71. Amy Wright enjoyed a sprint for the line with Fiona, placing 8th in a time of 2:26.75, also huge improvement in time since her previous race, and Amy was followed by Lorraine Healy who trains with the club (9th in 2:27.60) and Grainne Regan, who placed 10th with a PB of 2:29.66 (a 3 second improvement). Kevin Woods was also running in a strong field in the men’s 800m A race and came through well to place 3rd in 1:51.03, quite possibly a PB for him. In the women’s 1500m, among a large field of 19 runners, we had 2 Crusaders. Niamh Boland, in her 2nd event of the week, placed 8th in 4:42.82, possibly a season’s best run, whilst Orla Kennedy ran well in no man’s land at times to place 17th in 5:02.84. Michael Kiely placed 9th in the men’s 1500m B race in 4:13.03, whilst Michael O’Conor, well in contention in the men 800m C race, was clipped and, unfortunately, fell out of the race at the bell. Finally, Adam McMullen duly won the long jump with a jump of 7.55m.

There was one race in the mountains this week, on Wednesday. This time the league moved to Bray Head and a moderately difficult course of 6k, with a climb of some 300m. Among the 206 runners we had 6 Crusaders competing. They were led home by Warren Swords who placed 8th in a time of 27:36, just 1m22s behind race winner Michael McCarthy (26:14). Warren was followed by John McAuley (13th in 28:34) and by a slightly out-of-sorts Brian McGuckin (37th in 31:53). Sonja Fuhrmann was next, in 33:20, placing 55th overall, 4th female behind Sonya McConnon (22nd overall in 29:55). Ali Onur Uyar came home in 67th place (33:51) and he was followed by Berndt Heim (194th in 47:15).

We now come to the road-racing events of the week, of which there were several. On Wednesday, the BHAA took over Irishtown stadium for a 5K run on a mixture of bike path in Ringsend Park and track. There was a good turnout from the club for the event. Frank Hague was first home, in 13th place (17:43), followed by Karl Walsh in 14th and given the same time. Michael Wycherley followed closely behind in 15th (17:53), with Joe Walsh not too far behind (21st in 18:15, quite possibly a PB). Ollie McGrath was next, in 29th (18:41), and he was followed closely by Tomas Mahony (30th in 18:42). The final members of the contingent were Gearoid Grogan (34th in 19:11), Simon Kenny (39th in 19:48), Robbie Moore (56th in 20:38), Olwyn Dunne (84th overall, 9th female, 2nd in her age category, in 22:53) and Sharon Woods (117th overall, 26th female, in 25:11). The field measured 135 runners (and there is a question mark over some of the times and positions recorded).

On Saturday morning, on an undulating course in windy conditions in the northern end of Phoenix Park, we had 3 Crusaders take part alongside nearly 1,000 other participants in the Spar Fit Live 5k. Gian Piero Allerta, who is coming off a slight injury, ran 20:29 to place 28th and he was followed home by John Fitzsimons (265th in 28:59) and John's daughter, Lorraine (418th overall, 182nd female, in 31:43). Then, on Sunday, there were several events from which to choose and we had some great performances in each of them. The first was the Celbridge 5K and Adrienne Jordan ran on a newly-modified (and arguably slower) course. In a race won, not unsurprisingly, by Peter Somba (15:2) and Ciara Hickey (8th overall, in 17:15), in her second win of the week, Adrienne joined 190 other runners on a tough course (an unexpected hill at mile 2 and an 800m finish on grass) to take 3rd spot in the women’s race, 24th overall and first F40, in a time of 18:40. On the same morning we had 5 runners in Mullingar for the 10 miler there. Rob Cross ran a super 54:39 to place 3rd not too far behind winner Freddie Sittuk (54:02) and the first M40 across the line. Joe McDermott also ran out of his skin to record a PB time of 1:00:57 (25th out of a field of 240 and a 4 minutes improvement), with Bob Cahill not too far behind in 33rd place (1:02:55). Aoife Clarke was one of two women in the race, the other being Fiona Bane and they ran, respectively, 1:17:32 (a PB time) and 1:25:29 to place 114th and 164th overall, 14th and 37th female finishers. Finally, in the well-organised Dunleer 4 mile later in the day, Ilona McElroy distinguished herself among the field of 333 runners, by placing 17th overall, 2nd woman home to Niamh Devlin, in a time of 24:24, 5 seconds ahead of 3rd place. The undulating course had a few drags and conditions were hot and windy.

We had two ultra-marathoners in action over the weekend. Our exile in Canada, Ian Kinsella, decided to take on his first ultra at the Northface 50k in the Blue Mountains and ended up sharing the podium with ultra legends Rob Krar, winner of the Western States 100 in 2014 and 2015, and Dean Karnazes, who needs no introduction! Then, Leo Lundy participated in the Spitfire 24-hours race in Hornchurch Park, Essex. Leo finished at 101K after having some nutritional and hydration issues for the first time ever (no solid food from 40 miles and no liquids from 50 miles). He was a little unsteady on his feet and the early onset of what felt like hallucinations decided him to call it a day with quite a bit of time still left on the clock. This still goes in as Leo’s 4th longest run ever and this was his 100th UK based Marathon or Ultra (64 UK marathons and 36 UK Ultras). The event was a poor cousin to the Endure 24 but at least the timing and medical support was good and runners were treated to the most amazing sunset over Central London.

As usual, we finish the report with a round-up of parkrun events in which Crusaders took part. Darina Scully joined 292 other runners in Malahide, placing 69th overall, 11th female, in a time of 23:42. Alban Coghlan was first finisher in the 141-strong field in Tymon, with a time of 16:43. Orlaith de Burca ran 26:13 to place 74th overall, 9th woman home, in Shanganagh, alongside 171 other runners. Tomas Dunne was another lone runner in Cabinteely, placing 6th out of 137 in a time of 21:17. In Father Collins Niamh Quinn ran 23:00 to place 23rd overall, 2nd woman home, in a field measuring 77 participants. Relative newcomer, Noel Reilly, like Alban this week, placed first finisher in Castlerea. Noel’s time was 21:13 and he finished ahead of 30 other runners. Lesley-Ann Doughan took 2nd place (18th overall) in a time of 21:20 and in a field of 227 runners. Finally, in the inaugural parkrun in Fairview, Parkrun's 65th event, on Saturday morning, 276 men and women participated in the run, among them 5 Crusaders. Colm Kernan led our contingent home in 5th place (19:36), followed by Denis Murphy (29th in 21:59), Sharon Woods (120th overall, 24th woman, in 26:08), Mairead Cashman (175th overall, 52nd woman, in 28:54) and Aoife Quinn (190th overall, 60th woman, in 29:31).

It was a quiet week overall for road racing generally around the country but a momentous one for the club, as we hosted the Docklands 5k for the 3rd consecutive year. On a warm and humid, but, most importantly, dry, evening, with a westerly breeze, the race went largely without a hitch and we had sufficient volunteers to ensure generally a great experience for the runners. Since we started organising the event in 2015, we have seen ever faster times generated on the course and this year was no exception. New course records were established by both male and female winners and it is quite possible that we saw the greatest concentration of elite female runners in a 5k in Ireland this year, with the top 5 runners all breaking 17 minutes. The men also distinguished themselves, with a super sprint for the line involving 4 runners, finishing only 8 seconds apart in total. The race was won in a course record time of 14:30 by MSB’s John Coghlan, ahead of Kevin Maunsell (14:32) and Freddie Sittuk (14:37) ahead of a field of 1,558 finishers, the largest number for the race yet. The women’s race was won by another international athlete, Shona Heaslip of An Riocht, who also established a new course record of 16:12, ahead of last year’s winner Laura Shaughnessy (16:34) and another international, Ciara Durkin (3rd in 16:54). It was gratifying to see the first 4 female finishers complete the course in under 17 minutes, with the first 12 running under 19 minutes on chiptime. Indeed, the first 11 men ran under 16 minutes and over 15% of the field finished under 20 minutes, demonstrating that we really do have a fast and flat course.

Apart from the intrepid pacers recruited to try to ensure that runners finished under 20, 25 or 30 minutes, we had a few other Crusaders take part in the race and the ones we have been able to identify included Rob Cross, who ran 15:55 to place 10th and winner of his age category. Rob was followed by Tomas Mahony who took 131st place in 18:54, TJ Bourke (157th in 19:14), Zlatko Kulic (162nd in 19:15), Dave Tuohy (215th in 19:40), Luke Haran (535th in 20:24), Siobhan Russell (900th overall in 25:54), Orlaith de Burca (1,297th overall in 29:46), John Fitzsimons (a super 29:49 in 1,303rd) and Lorraine Fitzsimons (1381st overall in 32:53). The pacers were John McAuley, James Murphy, Adrienne Jordan, Hugh Larkin, Orla Kennedy, Catherine Thornton, Michael Fitzsimons, Fiona Shine, Lisa Shine and Emer Kenny, all expertly managed by Joe Dunne who also ran.

So, we held what has been acclaimed as a well-organised and safe race (although next year we will need to bring the water closer to the finish line), with a fun party afterwards in HQ. One notable observation is that 2 hours after the race our volunteers had removed all the evidence that a race had ever taken place, which hopefully will endear us to DCC, Garda an Siochana and local residents for future running of the event. Thanks to all who took a role in making the event such a huge success.

On Sunday, Dee Ni Chearbhaill reports that she placed 3rd woman finisher in a time of 20:41 in a 5K race (in Craanford in Co. Wexford) organised by Sliabh Buidhe Rovers with a field of nearly 190 runners. In fact, the first 3 women across the line were only 18 seconds apart and they finished one behind the other in 22nd, 23rd and 24th places overall. The overall race was won by Docklands third place finisher, Freddie Sittuk, in 15:06. Also, over the weekend, Kris Ryan competed in the Beach Run Half Marathon on the Gold coast of Australia, placing 3rd overall and first female finisher in a time of 1:54. Finally, on Sunday, Olwyn Dunne celebrated her birthday by running the Wicklow Hospice marathon in the Avondale forest. Olwyn passed through the marathon distance on the 5 mile loop course in 4:06:15, but ended up, for the sheer joy of running, covering at least 51k, indeed probably 54k.

The week started with the 6th graded meet organised by Dublin Athletics, this time in Irishtown stadium, with a plethora of sprints and 800m, together with a 5,000m event. In the 100m, there was a photo finish for 2nd place for Alix Hughes in the women’s 100m A race, Alix edging it in 13.08. Ines Fetahovic was 8th in 15.9 in the same race. Whilst, in the men’s 100m sprint, Abbas Bowen placed 4th in the B grade in 12.1 and, in the C grade, John O’Loughlin took 4th in 12.66, followed closely by novice Alex Romano who took 6th in 12.69. We then come onto the 800m events. The standout performance came from Niamh Boland who dominated her A race with a win close to her PB of 2:16.86, which qualified her for this coming Wednesday’s Morton Games in Santry. Amy Wright also won her C standard event in 2:29.34, at least 2 seconds ahead of 2nd place, with Niamh Aspell taking 5th in 2:33.38 and Grainne Regan, 6th in 2:34.55.

In the women’s B event, Anna King led for most of the race, but had to settle for 2nd place when she was caught within a whisker of the line. In only her 2nd 800m of the season, Anna ran a creditable 2:23.61. In the men’s races, there was a 6th place finish for Kevin Lynch in race 1 of the D grade, with a time of 2:25.61. The multi-disciplined John O’Loughlin took 8th in the same race in a time of 2:30.20. In race 2 of the same grade, Frank Halligan placed 3rd in 2:18.25, with Paul Kelly 7th in 3:04.94. We had 1 runner in the C grade where John Fahy took 7th in 2:14.88. Then, in race 1 of the B grade, Alan Sheehy finished in 7th spot in a time of 2:11.97, whilst, in the 2nd race, Brian Carroll came home in 3rd in 2:07.72. Michael Kiely placed 7th in race 1 of the A standard in a time of 2:05.13, whilst Michael O’Conor cemented his qualification for the Morton Games, running 2:01.83 to place 5th in the second race.

Darina Scully took on the women’s 5,000m and, in the combined B and C race, placing 4th in a time of 21:35.91, whilst, in the men’s equivalent standard event, Brian O’Kelly finished in 2nd place in 16:13.04 with Frank Halligan in 7th (16:51.10) and Joe McDermott, 11th in 17:20.96.

On Saturday junior hurdler Valantinos Goularas won the Greek National U20 110mH. Major congratulations to him.

There were two events in the mountains on which to report. On Wednesday evening, in IMRA’s Leinster League, on a really tough course in Ballinastoe, 158 runners took on a 500m climb over 12km. By all accounts, it was the toughest challenge of the year so far, in warm conditions. Warren Swords placed 12th in 56:57, about 5 minutes behind race winner Laura Kedney (51:49) and 2nd place finisher Michael McCarthy (53:27). The battle of the two Brians was won this week by Brian McGuckin (26th in 1:01:59), with Brian Leonard hot on his heels (28th in 1:02:38). Sonja Fuhrmann was next, placing 50th overall (8th woman) in 1:08:12, followed by Ali Onur Uyar (58th in 1:10:20) and Berndt Heim (155th in 1:37:11). Then on Saturday, Jason Kehoe distinguished himself with a win in the second of two races he has run (both, victories) in the Irish National Championships, this time on Croagh Patrick in Co. Mayo. The race involved challenging terrain with an ascent of more than 500m on a 7Km course. Among 54 competitors, Jason ran 52:58 for the win after a ding-dong battle with Rathfarnham’s Brian Furey (2nd in 53:55). Laura Flannelly’s husband, Brian, ran 1:05:09 to place 12th. We wish Jason, a recent national champion, well for the remaining races.

On Tuesday evening last week the BHAA held its annual 5K trail race in the Phoenix Park. It was a major undertaking as the principal sponsor had pulled out quite close to the race itself and so it was the committee that took on the organising. By all accounts, it was extremely well done and the new timing system appears to be working well. 135 runners participated in the race held on an extremely warm and dry evening and the usual anti-clockwise route near the cricket pitches was apparently reversed. We had 8 Crusaders in the race, led home by Karl Walsh in 4th place (in a PB time of 16:53). Karl was followed by Joe Walsh in 8th (18:31) and by Ilona McElroy who placed 17th overall, 3rd female finisher, in 19:04. Robbie Moore was next in 49th place (21:20), followed by Dee Ni Chearbhaill (50th overall, 8th female, and 3rd in her age category, also in 21:20) Tony Hackett (60th in 22:08), Sharon Woods (103rd overall, 26th female, in 25:31) and Mairead Cashman (121st overall, 40th woman, in 28:00).

Then, on Thursday evening Tomas Dunne participated in the Clonee 10K in wet conditions, along with nearly 300 other runners. The race was notable for the finish line video showing a super sprint for the line won by Emmett Dunleavy (30:50) over Peter Somba (30:51). Tom placed 51st in a guntime of 40:39.

A day later, Peter Somba was in action again, this time in the Kilcock 5K, organised by St. Coca’s AC. He and fellow Kenyan, Freddie Sittuk, broke away from the field early on, but were reeled in by Ian Guiden of Clonliffe, with Peter (who is actually coming back from injury) holding on for 2nd (about 35 seconds behind) and Freddie falling back to 6th. The race itself is a true gem. Given that the event, which has been going for some time, boasts, with reason, that it produces PBs, as the course, on which it is run, is pretty much as flat as a pancake (although GPS monitors produce a phantom hill in the first kilometre by virtue of a canopy of trees), surprisingly, the field comprised fewer than 450 runners, although of decent quality. We produced a women’s team of 4 runners accompanied by Vinnie McGuinness. In perfect running conditions in dry weather, Vinnie duly came in with a decent time of 16:21, for 29th place, whilst our 4 person women’s team, who came in third overall, produced 3 PBs among them. First home was Catherine Thornton, who, fresh off the back of a 10K PB last week, not unsurprisingly also produced a PB run this week for the shorter distance, coming home in 9th place in the women’s race, 102nd overall, and a time of 18:42. Amy Wright was next, just returning to fitness, placing 156th overall, 21st woman, in 20:03, having latched on to a slightly erratic pacer, followed by Lisa Shine, in 173rd place overall, 29th woman, in a PB time of 20:36. Kate Murray was our 4th scorer (as in Dunshaughlin last week) and Kate also improved on her PB, coming home in 207th spot, 40th woman finisher, in 21:27. The race itself was followed by a feast as fine as anywhere in Ireland!

On Saturday morning, a handful of our club-mates ran in the two races on offer in Clontarf, a 5 miler and a half marathon. The race was run in windy conditions, particularly for the return on the beach where there was an increasing headwind throughout the morning. We had 3 Crusaders run in the 760-strong 5 mile race. First home was Diarmuid Byrne in 9th place (31:40), followed by Niamh Aspell (21st overall, 4th woman) with, quite likely, a PB time of 33:06. Maria Pertl also continues to race and placed 301st overall in 46:57. Dominick Branigan was first home for the club in the half marathon, placing 8th in a field of more than 1,500 and a time of 1:23:56. Dominick was followed by Amy Brogan (205th overall) in 1:39:36 and by 2-hour pacers Olwyn and Joe Dunne, respectively 815th and 820th, in 1:59:24 and 1:59:36.

A lot of great track racing took place over the weekend. In the junior and U23 championships in Tullamore on Saturday, Matthew Behan was our standout performer, winning both the U23 100mH in 14.39 and the 200m in 22.36. The multi-talented Alix Hughes placed 2nd in the U23 100mH in 16:06, then came home in 5th in the 200m in 27.28, and then 4th in the long jump (4.48m). Meanwhile, Kevin Woods placed 5th in the U23 400m in a time of 49.50 and James Kelly won the junior 6 kg shot put with a throw of 15.05m. The following day, it was the turn of the masters in the same stadium. Graham Flynn won his heat of the 100m in 12.48, whilst John O’Loughlin placed 2nd in his heat (12.52) and Liam Lyster came home in his heat, also in 2nd place, with a time of 13.94 (going on to take 2nd in the 200m in 30:09 and then win his age category in the 400m in 57.76, followed by Paul Francis in 5th place in 60.15). John O’Loughlin also placed 2nd in the 200m in 25.29. Another ambidextrous athlete, Bob Lyne, placed 4th in his age category shot put with a throw of 9.41m, whilst also taking 2nd place in the 5k walk (34:49.29), 3rd in the hammer (18.80m) and 9th in the discus (21.54m). Adrienne Jordan, meanwhile, placed 3rd in the 3,000m in a time of 10:42.64, and Brian Carroll took on the 800m, placing 6th in 2:07.52. Simon Everard placed 4th in his age category heat in the 400m in a time of 53.98, whilst Niamh Boland took 2nd place in the women's 1,500m in a time of 4:46:25. Finally, Karen Conway took 2nd place in the discus (23.25m) and then going on to win the hammer with a throw of 32.26m.

Further afield, in a race in Switzerland that enabled Brian Gregan to qualify for the World Championships in London in August with a time of 45.48, Brian Murphy took 6th place in 48.79.

Kris Ryan took part in the Gold Coast marathon in her native Australia on Sunday and finished in 3:37, just a few seconds off her PB.

Leo Lundy reports that the 24 Hour world championships were held over the weekend in Victoria Park in Belfast. It also included the Masters World championships and the Irish championships as well as an open race. Leo was lucky enough to have secured entry into most of the races along with 300 international athletes among whom were world champions and national champions as well as some notable record holders (from Trans-America, the Badwater 100 etc). Alongside these runners, 100 athletes took part in an open section (and the overall winner was from this element). So, the event took place around a 1 mile loop in Victoria Park in the east of the city. Unfortunately, Leo reports that he wasn’t really feeling it during the race, no doubt not fully recovered from recent exploits and pulled himself out of the race after 44.5 miles, just as light was fading and it had become clear that he wasn't going to reach his goals. Nevertheless, he felt that it was a great event for ultra-endurance runners and a super one-off experience.

Midweek, the IMRA runners had a good contest in Tibradden. On a course of 11.23km in challenging terrain (an ascent of more than 500m) and misty conditions, 140 runners took part in the race. We had 9 of our clubmates taking part. Brendan Murphy led the way home in 2nd place (46:19), just over half a minute behind the race winner, Killian Mooney (45:45). Laura Flannelly placed 42nd overall (5th woman) in 59:03, behind women’s race winner, Sonya McConnon (13th overall in 51:48). Sonya Fuhrmann wasn’t too far behind, placing 54th overall, 8th woman in 1:00:41. Brian McGuckin this week won the battle of the two Brians, taking 21st place in 54:21, just 12 seconds ahead of Brian Leonard (22nd in 54:33) and not too far ahead of John Fahy, who has both of them in his sights now(!) (25th in 55:07). Michael Maughan was next, in 45th (59:22), followed by Gavan Doherty (47th in 59:29) and Berndt Heim (132nd in 1:26:19).

16 Crusaders took part in parkruns on Saturday morning. The most notable performance came from John Mulvihill who led the 67-strong field home in his native Longford, finishing in 16:30 and well ahead of the field, which included Noel Reilly (3rd in 20:56). Other good runs came from the likes of John Fahy, who ran 18:14 to place 3rd in Marlay Park ahead of more than 400 other participants and Gillian Errity who placed 3rd woman (33rd overall) in 23:50 in a field exceeding 150 in Griffeen, Fiona Bane who also placed 3rd woman (15th overall) in the 80-strong field in Father Collins, with a time of 23:29, Frank Hague, 2nd in Porterstown in a time of 17:57 ahead of nearly 80 other runners and Darina Scully (9th overall, 3rd woman, in 23:50) among 34 participants. Other strong runs came from Niamh Quinn (62nd overall, 7th woman, in 23:42) in St. Anne’s with its field of nearly 290 runners and Niamh was followed by Lorraine Fitzsimons (212th overall, 68th woman, in 30:52. Our runners seemed to find obscure parkruns everywhere. Denis Murphy ran on the tight course in Donabate with Aoife Quinn, taking 14th place in 22:19. Aoife, meanwhile also ran well to place 43rd overall, 10th woman, in 25:20 in a field of more than 120 runners. Neil Brown returned to Shanganagh, joining nearly 100 runners and taking 45th spot in 25:12, while Orlaith de Burca and Fiona Shine decided to run Cabinteely, despite Mairin Shine not being able to run her 100th parkrun there yet because of an injury picked up midweek. Orlaith placed 74th overall, Fiona 75th, and respectively 27th and 28th women finishers, in a time of 30:37 in a field of more than 100 participants. Finally, just over 12 hours after her super run in Kilcock, Kate Murray joined Mairead Cashman in Bushy Dublin with its field of 74 runners, finishing in 29th place overall, 7th woman, in 25:35, whilst Mairead ran 27:48 to place 41st overall, 12th female finisher.

The report begins with Wednesday’s Dublin Athletics graded track and field meet in Tallaght, the 5th in this year’s series. There was a bit of a breeze and a constant threat of rain, but it largely held off. Nevertheless, the event took place in quite clammy conditions. There are some question marks over several of the 800m results, so they should be treated with a lot of caution, but the 200m and 3,000m results are probably accurate. In the men’s 200m C race John O’Loughlin placed 2nd in 25.77, whilst Paul Kelly, in the same race, took 8th in 33.40. The women’s B 800m race was stuffed with Crusaders along with a runner, Lorraine Healy, who trains with us. After leading for much of the race, Anna King, in her first race of the season, had to settle for 2nd place in a possible time of 2:25.59. Anna was followed by the steady Fiona Shine who placed 3rd in 2:28.23 and Lesley-Ann Doughan just behind, 5th in 2:28.92. Next came Lorraine (7th in 2:30.54), followed by Catherine Thornton (10th in 2:35.19) and Lisa Shine (12th in 2:40.51). Paul Kelly went on to compete in the men's 800m D race, placing 13th in a time of 3:37.20, whilst John Fahy placed 5th in the 800m C 1st race in a time of 2:17.60 and John Thuillier was 8th in the 2nd race in a time of 2:23.71. In the men’s 800m B 1st race, Alan Sheehy ran 2:11.93 to place 6th, whilst Brian Carroll placed 7th in the 2nd race in a time of 2:08.55. Finally, there were PBs for all our runners in the 3,000m. Darina Scully ran in a combined A, B and C women’s race, placing 16th overall in a PB time of 12:26.71, and although John McAuley and Joe McDermott also ran in a men’s combined A, B and C race, their results were treated differetly from those of the women and their places were split out into separate races. John duly won the C standard with a PB time of 9:53.53 (his first time under 10 minutes), whilst Joe was given 7th place with a PB time of 10:22.12.

On the same night, our intrepid mountaineers were taking part in an IMRA league race in Brockagh, Co. Wicklow. The course measured 11km and was considered of moderate difficulty with a climb of 443m. Jason Kehoe won for the 2nd time in as many weeks in a time of 50:27, followed by Brian Leonard (19th in 57:10), winning for once in the usual battle with teammate Brian McGuckin (24th in 58:29). They were followed by Ali Onur Uyar (73rd in 1:07:18) and Gavan Doherty (81st in 1:08:25), who's returned to his first love from last week’s parkrun. The field measured 178 runners.

On Friday night Dominick Branigan took on the Drogheda and District Midsummer 5K, placing 11th in a field of nearly 600 participants. Dominick’s time was 17:39.

Then on Saturday, there was a lot to report. The morning saw a few of our clubmates travel down to Waterford to take part in the half and quarter marathons in the Viking Marathon festival. Russell Murphy and Fiona Bane took on the half, in warm conditions on a hilly course, placing, respectively, 352nd and 367th overall in times of 1:51:12 and 1:52:14 (74th woman finisher) in a field of over 1,200 participants. We had 3 runners in the quarter: In a field of nearly 970 runners, Diarmuid Byrne took 16th spot in 45:15, followed by Aoife Clarke (63rd overall, 16th woman, in 52:32) and Maria Pertl (241st overall, 102nd woman, and potentially the fastest 6-months pregnant woman in the field in 1:03:29).

The afternoon witnessed an IMC meet in a windy Belfast on the Mary Peters track there. Several Crusaders decided to make a weekend of it and put in a bit of racing too. Nick Ennis placed 6th in the men’s 400m A race in a great time of 48.95, whilst then going on to run in the men’s 400m A event, placing 4th in 11.06. We had several running in the 800m. In the women’s B race, Lesley-Ann Doughan improved on her time in Tallaght, by running 2:27.35 and placing 5th (again!). Alan Sheehy ran 2:12.52 in the men’s 800m C race to place 4th, whilst Michael O’Conor took on the C race and grabbed 7th spot in 2:01.75, close to the time he recorded in Irishtown two weeks ago. In the men’s 1500m A race, Michael Kiely ran 4:03.38 and came home in 14th place, whilst Niamh Boland, in the women’s equivalent event, placed 7th in 4:43.32. Finally, Shane Collins participated in the men’s 3,000m and took 21st position in a PB time of 9:12.89.

The evening was dedicated to the classic 10K race in Dunshaughlin, in its 38th edition. It’s a super race and always attracts around 800 runners. This year was no exception, on a slightly windy and warm evening, the field finally measured north of 770, nearly 25% of them breaking 40 minutes, which shows what quality the race exhibits. The course is not flat, with a couple of hills around the 6Km mark, but it is fast and extremely enjoyable, with a marvellous feast afterwards provided by the townspeople. We fielded a small contingent of 12 runners, but it was full of quality, with Orla Drumm coming home in a season’s best time of 35:52 and taking an excellent 2nd place (55th overall) behind the prolifically successful Laura Shaughnessy who marked a PB in her winning time of 34:02. Catherine Thornton was our next woman home, in her 2nd event of the week, taking 7th spot (162nd overall) in a super PB time of 39:23 and also getting a likely PB at 5k, breaking 19 minutes for the first time. The women’s team was completed by Kate Murray (356th overall, 53rd woman) in a time, close to a PB for the distance set 2 weeks ago, of 44:49 and Olwyn Dunne (390th overall, 68th woman) in a time of 46:04. The combined total of positions for the first three women was agonisingly close to a podium place, only 1 point off taking 3rd spot in the team competition. Considering we only had 4 women running, 4th place was an excellent outcome all the same.

The men also ran well, with Rob Cross, despite carrying a neck injury which saw him lose a few places towards the end, winning his age category and taking home for the 2nd time a shield as big as a door which will have to have his name engraved on it. Rob finished in a creditable 13th place in a race which Sergiu Ciobanu won with considerable ease, with our Kenyan friends Peter Somba and Freddie Sittuk fighting it out between them for 2nd and 3rd spots some distance behind. Peter inevitably prevailed, having sat on Freddie’s shoulder until the last 100m or so. Our next runner home was Ger Forde who ran well to place 37th in a PB time of 35:52, followed by Joe McDermott with his 2nd PB of the week. Joe placed 81st in a great chiptime he hadn’t realised he’d achieved of 36:59 (official guntime of 37:02). This was the first year where runners enjoyed a chipped start. In previous years Joe would not have been able to claim the lower time, because the starts were all based on gun. Joe was followed by Joe Walsh who was on autopilot towards the end, but ran bravely to take 96th spot in 37:16. Next came Colm Kernan who was another runner also to mark his finish with a PB. Colm placed 122nd in 37:48 and he was followed by Eddie Nugent (127th in 37:57), Simon Kenny (222nd in 41:36) and Kevin O’Connor (445th in 47:37).

On Sunday morning, Jane Wallace joined Thomas Clarke and 370 or so other runners to run in the Malahide Castle 10K and distinguished herself with a 3rd place finish in the women’s race. Jane’s time was 42:47 and her overall position was 31st. Thomas, on the other hand, ran 40:07 to place 9th overall.

Gary Park reports that Crusaders men came 5th in their premier division pool in the first qualifying round of the National track and field league in Athlone on Sunday. County Tipperary had 133 points after the first round, Menapians, 131, Leevale, 120, GCH, 95, Crusaders, 85, Tullamore, 75 and Kilkenny City, 42 points. There was a win for Oisin Taylor in the triple jump, 2nd for Nick Ennis in the 400m and Sam Gaine in the Discus. 3rd places went to Ciaran Donnelly in the hammer and the 56lb and Tom De Jongh in the shot put. All to play for in the 2nd round, with the team lying in 10th overall at this stage (8 places up for grabs) and we wish the team the best of luck.

Also, over the weekend on the track, Jason Harvey reported that he ran in France in a 400mH race, coming home with a season's best 51.20.

Pat Quill ran in the North Lavaredo Ultra trail race near Cortina in Italy over the weekend. The distance was 120km with a climb of some 5,800m. He reported that it was highly enjoyable up until the 80k mark when his right quad became exceptionally sore and too painful to run on. He walked the rest and shed a lot of places but was never in any doubt for a finish.

On Wednesday evening there was a decent turnout from the club for the 29th running of the BHAA Trinity Track races. Two distances were on offer, 800m and 2,000m, and the races were broken down into standards, so that in principle everyone was competing against his or her own peer group and everyone, therefore, had a chance to win. We ended up with several podium places as a consequence.

There was a bit of a wind in Dublin that evening, but the grass track in the university is relatively well-sheltered, so that runners would not have felt it much. The weather was otherwise dry and quite warm. In other words it was perfect for track racing. Times were not so important as everyone would have expected to run slower on a grass track than a tartan and it was generally felt that the difference over 800m would be in the region of 3-5 secs. Mike McGovern took on the role of starter for the night.

The first event incorporated standards 14-30 among the women and the race with a large field was won from gun to tape convincingly by Rachel Yorke who thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Rachel finished in a time of 2:46.8. Mairead Cashman also ran and placed 14th in 3:49.0. In the women’s standards 1-13 800m, Niamh Boland was able to latch on to another runner who broke away from the start and duly finished in second place, well clear of the field in a time of 2:21.7. Until the last 250m Catherine Thornton was leading a group of pursuers and hung on well to place 4th in 2:34.5, with Niamh Aspell hard on her heels in 5th place in 2:36.3 and Dee Ni Chearbhaill a little further back in 8th place in 2:56.0.

For the men there were at least 5 races run for the 800m. In standards 8-9, Niall McGeorge put on a great display to win the race in 2:23.6, followed by Philip Matthews in 7th (2:42.0). Despite running in the 2nd lane for most of the race, Luke Haran put on a similar display in the 800m for standards 10-11, taking 2nd place in 2:30.4. The next race was for standards 12-13 and we had 3 runners in the large field. Denis Murphy put in an excellent effort in the last lap to place 4th in 2:37.4, followed by Brendan Glynn (7th in 2:42.7) and Robbie Moore (14th in 2:50.8). Gearoid Grogan also ran well in standards 17-21, coming home in 2nd place in 2:34.7, whilst Paul Kelly took 5th place in 3:35.8 in his race for the 22-30 standards.

Several went on to run in the 2,000m on the wonderful grass surface. Niamh Boland managed to beat her opponent from the 800m with a convincing win in 7:07.1, followed by Catherine Thornton who was on the tail of the previous victor right up until the last 300m, finishing in 3rd place (7:23.0). Dee Ni Chearbhaill also decided to give it a go and placed 6th in 8:13.0. We had 2 runners in the standards 14-30, with Kate Murray’s fresh legs helping her to take 2nd place in 8:26.5 and Mairead Cashman who took 10th in a time of 10:41.7.

Luke Haran placed 7th in his race (standards 10-11) in 7:36.7, whilst in the next race (12-13), Denis Murphy placed 6th in 7:49.5, Brendan Glynn was 9th in 7:55.6 and Robbie Moore 12th in 8:03.2. Gearoid Grogan missed the race for his standard and so competed in a higher standard (14-16), managing to win the event in a time of 7:38.4. Finally, Paul Kelly, put himself on the podium with a 3rd place finish in his race (standards 22-30) in 9:50.3.

There was also an IMRA league race around Djouce that evening. Jason Kehoe distinguished himself by winning the event that was on a course marked as moderately difficult over a distance of 9.8km and a climb of 580m. Jason’s time was 54:02 and he led home 175 other competitors in the race, most notably including at least 8 other Crusaders. Warren Swords was next in 14th place (58:47) and he was followed by John McAuley (19th in 1:00:36), Brian McGuckin (20th in 1:00:43), Brian Leonard (24th in 1:03:17), John Fahy, a sometime mountaineer (37th in 1:06:48), Laura Flannelly (46th overall, 6th female, in 1:09:33), Ali Onur Uyar (65th in 1:12:33) and Berndt Heim (160th in 1:40:09).

On Thursday night in windy conditions Brendan Glynn (a glutton for punishment!), Paul Kelly, Liam Lyster, Darina Scully and Lorraine Healy, who trains with the club, went up to Drogheda to take part in the 4th graded meet in the Lourdes stadium. In the 800m mixed C standard race, Lorraine ran 2:32.6 for 7th place, with Brendan two places back in 2:39.4. Paul ran in the D standard, placing 13th in 3:26.1. In the first of two events, Liam took part in the mixed 200m C standard race, taking 4th place in 29.90. Following that, he went on to compete in the shot put, but as the only competitor in the 5kg event he was never going to lose it. Like Liam, Paul also went on to run in the 200m (mixed F standard), finishing in 2nd spot in a time of 33.27. Finally, in the mixed 3,000m race, Darina Scully took 4th place in a time of 12:47.62.

Also, on Thursday, we had runners in the 3rd races of the Born 2 Run series. This time the event moved on to Newbridge House near Swords. In the 10K race on a largely flat course Jim Stagg placed 2nd in a field exceeding 100 runners in a time of 38:09, whilst in a field of approx. 80 runners we had two runners in the 5K. Iseult Ni Chuinneagain took 39th place overall (15th female) in 28:44, whilst Ciara McElligott placed 57th overall, 27th female, in 32:26.

On a warm and sultry Friday night Susan Walsh went on to provide live commentary for the annual Dublin Pride 5K race taking place in the Phoenix Park around the 15 Acres area. We only appear to have had one competitor in the 542-strong race: Dominick Branigan placed 3rd in a time 18:16.

One of the highlights of the weekend was the Irish Runner 5 mile race on Saturday morning that took place mostly in the northern section of the Phoenix Park, thereby cutting out most of the hills around the Military Road and the Chapelizod Gate. The race used to be part of the Dublin race Series, but has now become a solo effort by the magazine, largely because numbers have been falling in recent years. Indeed, Saturday’s edition may well have seen its lowest total of finishers yet, with fewer than 2,000. Despite that, in sunny, warm and windy conditions, the race enjoyed a quality field and, appropriately, despite the presence of our two almost-resident Kenyans who tend to win a lot these days, Peter Somba and Freddie Sittuk, who placed respectively 5th and 6th, the top 3 male places went to household Irish runners: Kevin Maunsell, Sean Hehir (who put in a great run in the last half mile to grab 2nd place) and John Coughlan.

The course was most interesting, allowing spectators to see the runners several times and not too hilly either, except for the sharp left turn off the Fairy Glen onto the Upper Glen Road. The wind, however, seemed to be in runner’s faces when it came to uphill sections. The start of the race was delayed by about 13 minutes, because of a surprise visit being paid to Aras an Uachtarain just at the moment the race was due to start, one of the hazards of a Phoenix Park event.

We had a great turnout for the race with at least 22 participants, to such an extent that the commentator at the finish, having seen so many Crusaders cross the line in the first 100 or so finisher,s felt bound to ask publicly if there were anone from the club still at home!

Rob Cross won his age group with a 9th place finish, a position he largely held throughout the race. His time was 26:31. Rob was followed by John Mulvihill in 14th place, who similarly held a top 15 position throughout the race and picked off another runner with half a mile to go. John’s time was 27:07. Ciaran Diviney was next only 3 places behind John in 17th and finishing in a PB time of 27:16 and 4th place in his age category. Top 50 places went to Frank Halligan (28th in 28:08), Niall O’Connell (45th in a PB time of 29:17) and Joe McDermott (49th in a time just 4 secs off his PB in 29:32). Joe Walsh (60th in 29:53) and Eddie Nugent (73rd in 30:32) were able to finish in the top 100 also, along with Ilona McElroy, still with a niggling ankle injury but able to place 6th female and 84th overall in a creditable time of 30:53. Among the later runners, Nina Holmes acquitted herself well with 208th place overall, 23rd female, in 34:50, whilst Michael Fitzsimons demonstrated that he is returning to form, placing 110th in 32:01 and there was also a top 150th placing for David Killion (144th in 33:12). Fiona Bane ran in the race but her time was not recorded and she disposed of her number before the error was discovered. Finally, John Fitzsimons was able to take 3rd in the O/70 category, despite being only 2 months away from his 80th birthday, with a time of 53:01 (1,508th).

On Sunday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar joined a field of more than 700 runners, including a couple from the club, in the Castleknock 5K. He finished in a time of about 28 mins, although his result appears not to have been recorded. The course was quite challenging with a nice downhill section for the first mile but a really tough last 800m up Knockmaroon Hill, finishing in the grounds of Castleknock College. The two club-mates who competed in the race were Frank Hague who came home in 7th spot (18:24) and Donal Foley who placed 67th in 22:33.

Also, on Sunday, Bob Cahill took part in the local Kildare marathon (the first running of the Thoroughbred Run Kildare), and in his second marathon in as many weeks he placed 2nd out of 100 runners in 3:03:48. On the flat course, Bob was leading at the half way mark but found the last quarter of the 2 lap race tough in the hot weather (despite the race having started at 8:30). So, this was his second 2nd place finish inside of 15 days.

On Thursday, in the UK, Leo Lundy took on the Dorney Lake ultra in and around the Olympic rowing venue in Buckinghamshire. It was a hot oppressive day at 27 degrees and his 28.8 miles was good enough for 8th out of 83 finishers (6:15:58). On Sunday on the hottest day of the year in the UK so far (30 degrees) he took on the Hampshire Hoppit which was a hilly nearly 800m of climb) off-road trail marathon in and around the Test Valley and Watership Down areas in North Hampshire. Leo reported that it was survival at the end of a 150+ mile week.

On the track, Matthew Behan achieved two European U/23 qualifying times in the 110m hurdles in the England U/23 and U/20 championships over the weekend. He completed an excellent two days by taking third place in Sunday's final in a time of 14.34. Many congratulations to him.

Mairin Shine reported that she and John Fitzsimons ran in the Raheny Shamrocks-organised Tommy Lynam 2 mile run on Sunday and both won their respective age categories. In a small field of 31 runners, John ran the distance in 17:32 and Mairin, 17:52.

Finally, in the parkruns we had the usual participants, as well as a few newcomers to the event, and some excellent results. Matt Cranley joined 305 other runners in St. Anne’s Raheny to place 18th in 19:53. Matt was followed by Phelim Murray (35th in 21:34), Denis Murphy (37th in 21:54), Sarah Lyons (64th overall, 7th female, in 23:22) and Aoife Quinn, making her way back to form steadily after her knee operation (159th overall, 38th female, in 28:08). Ciara McElligott was our sole representative in the 111-strong field in Naas, placing 87th overall, 32nd female, in 32:13, as was Sharon Woods, who placed 50th overall, 9th female, in a time of 25:16, in Tymon, among a field of 134 participants. Similarly, Maria Pertl took on Poppintree on her own, placing 55th overall out of nearly 100 runners (22nd female), in a time of 28:41. Our best result of the day went to Daniel Lowe who was first finisher in Lough Key. Daniel came in ahead of 144 other runners in a time of 18:20. Colm Kernan was also a lone runner for the club in Ballincollig, placing 6th in 20:09. The field measured 264 runners. Darina Scully and Mairead Cashman took on the 84-strong Bushy Dublin field with Darina coming home in 20th place overall (3rd woman finisher) in 23:38 and Mairead Cashman finished in 50th place overall, 15th woman, in 28:55. In Cabinteely, our 6 runners finished as follows: In a field of nearly 90 runners, Dave Carter came home in 2nd place in 19:42, followed by Colm Foley (19th in 23:14), Gavan Doherty (25th in 23:28), Lisa Shine (72nd overall, 25th woman, in 30:29), Orlaith de Burca (73rd overall, 26th woman, in 30;30) and Mairin Shine(78th overall, 28th woman, in 32:07). Lastly, Olwyn Dunne attended a parkrun international conference in Berkhamsted and took part in a parkrun in Tring…but she walked the hilly course!

​On Saturday, Crusaders hosted an exciting track meet, the annual GV Ryan, at the Irishtown stadium, on the same day that we celebrated the club’s 75th anniversary at the Hilton Hotel, a fitting combination, with both the meet and dinner being graced by the presence of club icons Ronnie Delaney and Caroline O’Shea. There was a super Cru turnout for both occasions, both of which ran like clockwork thanks to the efforts of Susan Walsh and Michael McGovern, ably supported by club volunteers led by another stalwart, Jim O’Neill. Club president Niall O’Connell gave a wonderful speech too, followed by some words of inspiration from Ronnie. No one will forget Ronnie’s parting comment about the importance of winning! Belatedly, but deservedly, John O’Connor received a lifetime achievement award, and also demonstrated that not only do we have excellent athletes in the club, but we also have some great visionaries too. To cap a long day, several of us saw the dawn, before making the effort of a long run on Sunday morning!

We start with racing that took place earlier in the week. On Wednesday evening, a few of our members headed up to Santry to participate in Dublin Athletics’ 4th graded meet. It was at times wet and windy, but in spite of that there were some excellent races. Our only female competitor on the night, Fiona Shine, took part in the women’s 1500m C race and won a sprint for the line to take 2nd place in 5:00.66 (likely a PB). Abbas Bowen ran in race 2 of the men’s 100m B event, placing 5th in 12.14, whilst John O’Loughlin, in search of a qualifying standard, ran 57.8 also to place 5th in the men’s 400m C race. Kevin Woods, who has been racing abroad recently, most notably in Belgium, with some excellent times and results, distinguished himself with a super win in the men’s 400m A race and a time of 49.64. Finally, we had 3 runners in the men’s 1500m C race. Alan Sheehy led the way home in 3rd place and a time of 4:32.10, followed by Frank Halligan (6th in 4:38.05) and John Thuillier (9th in 4:50.32) on his return to racing after a hiatus whilst he studies for an MBA.

Also, on Wednesday, as usual, IMRA held another league race, this time on Sorrel Hill. The course was approx. 9.45km, with a climb of some 400m and described as of moderate difficulty. The race having been won by Croghan AC’s Pat Foley in 44:39, as a club we had some excellent results further down the field. Warren Swords took 8th place in 46:56, followed by Jim Stagg, not exactly a household name in mountain running, who ran well to place 15th in 49:26. In a field exceeding 140 runners, Brian McGuckin was next in 21st in a time of 50:08, followed by Laura Flannelly (52nd overall in 56:49 and 6th female). Ali Onur Uyar was next in 70th place (1:00:23) and he was followed by the final member of our contingent, Berndt Heim, who placed 121st in 1:17:43.

We had 2 podium placings on Thursday evening in the 2nd 5k race of the Born to Run Series. Last week’s events had taken place in the grounds of Malahide Castle and this week the event moved on to St. Anne’s Raheny. Conditions were calm, but with a couple of heavy showers. Darina Scully took 1st place in the women’s race, beating 30 other women in the process. In a total field of 66 runners, Darina placed 13th overall in a time of 22:40, whilst Diarmuid Byrne demonstrated that he is nearly over a recent injury with a 3rd place finish in a time of 19:10.

We now come to the blue riband event of the week, the IMC-organised, Crusader-hosted, GV Ryan meet on Saturday afternoon. With a strong headwind down the home straight (officially gale force strength) it was always going to be difficult to record PBs, particularly in the sprint events, but PBs there were during the day. We had participants in several events. Kevin Woods capped his excellent week with a PB in the men’s 800m A race, taking 5th place in 1:50.80, whilst there was an inspirational run from Michael O’Conor in the men’s 800m D race. Michael managed to hold onto the pacer in a group of 3 or 4 runners that separated itself from the rest of the field early on and lying for much of the race in 3rd or 4th place, finally coming through to win in a sprint for the line with a 3 second PB improvement (2:01.64). Brian Carroll and Alan Sheehy also took part, with Brian placing 6th in a PB time of 2:07.50 and Alan, 9th in 2:10.80. Michael Kiely ran in the 1500m B race, placing 12th in 4:28:84 and finding the going tough, whilst Niamh Boland Orla Kennedy also found conditions challenging in the women’s 1500m. Niamh eventually placed 5th in 4:45.89, whilst Orla took 7th spot in a time of 4:59.84. In the women’s 800m B race, Fiona Shine returned to the track after her midweek exploits, but, because of the conditions, both she and Lisa, who ran in the same race, produced runs which were a couple of seconds off their PBs. Fiona took 6th place in 2:29.83, with Lisa in 7th in 2:40.48 and the multi-talented Alix Hughes, one place behind in 8th in a time of 2:55.74. There were other good spectacles in the two races run by the 110m hurdlers. Matthew Behan won both in respective times of 14.79 and 14.67, whilst Valantinos Goularas, running as a junior alongside, took 2nd in both races in respective times of 14.91 and 15.12. Alix Hughes demonstrated her versatility with a 2nd place in the women’s 100m in a time of 13.46, with Rhianna McCarthy right on her tail in 3rd in 13.54. In fact, Alix also took part in the long jump, but results are yet to be published. Like her, John O’Loughlin took on multiple events during the meet. He placed 5th in the 200m in 26.24 and 6th in the 400m in 58.60. Finally, in a race of only two competitors unfortunately, Ciara Barry followed the winner home in a time 1:03.61. It was a tough environment to run in and Ciara acquitted herself well. Brian O'Kelly ran in the 3000m, but his result is yet to appear and will be added once it is published.

Over the weekend, Kris Ryan and Leo Lundy took part in the Endure 24 in Aldermaston in Berkshire. It’s known as the Glastonbury of running due to everyone camping for the weekend and having the craic. Over 3,000 runners took part, mostly in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8-person relay teams over the hilly 5 mile trail (around 2000ft of climb per marathon). Kris and Leo took part with 238 others in the blue riband 24hr solo. The temperature was mid 20's during the day and there was constant rain over night, when the trails became slippery. Leo squeezed in 20 laps for 100 miles exactly and a top 30 finish. Kris ran a really strong 23 laps for 115 miles and 3rd overall and 1st woman (2nd all-time overall female distance holder in the 6 editions of the event). Both were inaugurated into the Endure 24 100 mile club.

Joe Walsh reported that he was in San Sebastian in Spain at the weekend and took part in a 10k night race. The race took place on a picturesque course along the seafront which kicked off just as the sun was setting on the bay but it was a bit of a surprise to have to descend a flight of about 40 steps in the last km. He’s not sure if his time of 39:24 (20th in a field of just under 300) was more down to the warm conditions or a week of over-indulging on holiday!

Paul O’Meara ran in the Mourne Way marathon on Saturday, his 17th. Conditions were tough. Following a deluge overnight, the trails were knee deep in mud, although the day was sunny enough. Paul recorded a time of 4:02:45, reflecting how difficult the conditions were, and placed 9th out of 189 runners.

Dave Tilly reported that he and visually-impaired athlete Donnacha McCarthy took part in the Wicklow 100K mountain cycle, the toughest in Ireland, that was followed by a run at the finish of the cycle. They were the first tandem home.

More podium places were recorded for our clubmates over the weekend, notably in some of the parkruns. In a field of 200 runners, our Malta exile, Rebecca Fleming took advantage of a brief trip home to run in Castletown and took 8th place overall, first female finisher, in a time of 21:26, whilst, in Poppintree, Darina Scully also placed first female finisher (her second win in a week!) and 14th overall in a field of nearly 100 runners. Darina’s time was 22:34. Our third 1st finisher was Fiona Bane, who ran in Enniskillen with nearly 90 other runners. Fiona ran 23:50 and placed 5th overall. In a field of nearly 460 runners in Marlay, Dominick Branigan, took 2nd place in 17:42. He was followed by Lesley-Ann Doughan in 41st place overall, 3rd female finisher, in 21:34. Next came Alex Romano, 50th in 21:34 followed by a returning racer, Barry O’Neill, who took 78th spot in 22:47 and Kate Murray (97th overall, 16th female, in 23:20). Whilst going through pregnancy, Maria Pertl is still keeping her running up. She and partner Diarmuid Byrne ran side by side in Navan on Saturday morning, placing 40th and 41st in the same time of 28:44 in a field of 68 runners. Gillian Errity took 4th place in 23:54 in the women’s event, and 41st overall, in Griffeen with a field of more than 200 participants. Other solo participants included Sharon Woods who took 23rd place overall, 4th placed woman, in a time of 24:55 in the 103-strong Tymon parkrun and Mairead Cashman (84th overall, 36th female finisher, in 49:09) among nearly 90 runners in Bushy Dublin. Finally, we had 6 runners in the nearly 400-strong field in St. Anne’s Raheny. Michael Maughan led the contingent home in 22nd place in a time of 20:04, followed by Zlatko Kulic (48th in 21:38) and Denis Murphy (121st in 24:28). It was great to see that Martina White has returned to racing after a long break, placing 170th overall, 39th female, in 26:22. The remaining runners were John and Lorraine Fitzsimons, with John placing 249th in 29:14 and Lorraine, 316th overall, 119th female, in 31:36.